Theres an older thread, i can’t find it… Someone bought a 5 series as a result?

Decided to keep my 120d or look for a 3 series touring for the same price – about £9.5k to spend. Seem to be a lot of nicely specced cars on Autotrader and a 330d is easily found, but rarely at 60k miles and more at around 80-100k miles. Seems a hard choice seeing as my 120 will be at 39k miles.

Should I be concerned about the mileage (diesel)?

80-100k isn’t a lot of miles imo, as long as you factor in costs of things that are consumables such as timing belt, clutch, brakes etc.

Ghah!

How many times do I have to post about my two 530d sport tourings (autos) one with 170k on and the other 240k.. towed 24/30ft yachts all over Europe without a missing heartbeat.. oh, well the boot release packed up on the last one because the wiring frazzled itself by the catch, but that was it.
FSH obvz, just consumables.. both px’d back at main dealer until I decided to change brands.. these were the shape before the current 5series.

It’s all about how well they have been maintained ..as with any car.
While it’s not a Beemer a near neighbour is running an 08 plate Vauxhall Vectra diesel with 450k+ miles on it ..he is hoping to get to half a million ..
The sort of mileage you are talking about means the car is hardly run-in..replace the timing belt in time and put an extended warranty on it ..cross your fingers and pray to the motoring gods 🙂

bikebouy – did you change the auto box oil in those high milers?
I’m considering getting mine done at 70k

oldtennisshoes – Member
bikebouy – did you change the auto box oil in those high milers?
I’m considering getting mine done at 70k

I had mine megaflushed at 75k.

As mentioned above, maintenance is key.
The 3 litre diesels have timing chains, not belts.. N57 engine (2008 on) has occasional reported problems with them, M57 not so much (to 2008).
(2008 325D with approaching 200k on the clock).

How many times

It was your quote in Alex’s thread recently that inspired me to post this. I’m fed up of the PCP merry go round, and after Junior changed his rugby boots on the front seat ion Sunday I decided I just need Dads Taxi.

Ok, so 38k 1’er vs 80k 3’er isn’t such an issue if either costs £9000 – both will last for many years of motorway cruising and bike carrying.

Just need to decided which car to go for. I’ve six months so that should see a few more current diesel auto’s appear on the market.

Aren’t you in sales Kryton? No company car on offer? If there is I would take it, just so much less hassle.

You aren’t going to buy a high mileage second-hand car, you just aren’t.

those 330d touring cars with 80k on the clock will be ex-company cars.
My last car (BMW 118d) did 100k miles in 52 months, and my current car (Passat 2.0d) is currently on 82k, and will be 4 years old in March.

Both had a full main dealer history, and most miles were unstressed motorway cruising.

However – the lease company will do everything they can to get out of paying for anything which isn’t vital, so ‘advisories’ at the last service (such as new shocks needed soon) will usually get rejected.

I’d buy an ex-company car no problem, but be aware there is a huge difference in a ‘managers’ car, which will generally be used for commuting, and a ‘service car’ which will be used by Engineers to take tools/parts to jobs everyday.
most of our Service Engineers cars at work are totally shagged after 4 years, and are fit for nothing.

If an 06-10 plate worth checking that it’s had the ABS/TCS solenoid unit replaced. £750 job at a dealer, bit less at a good independent but prone to failure. So prone, in fact, that BMW made just the solenoid kit available as a replacement…

Personally I think there are better options than old BMWs.

Cheers Daffy, I think I’ll get mine done.

No company car on offer?

No I get a car allowance.

Personally I think there are better options than old BMWs.

I’m all ears…?

Needs to be no longer than a 3 series touring though as it won’t go in the garage.

All my cars, all of them, have been dealer FSH maintained. I am not mechanical minded enough to touch them. Yes I could change the oil and filters and brake pads and simple stuff like that.. but I’m time pressured so I drop the car off (or they get collected) and I use one of theirs whilst the cars in for service. Also, the main reason for using main dealers is because they know what to look for and change stuff when needed and it’s covered by warranty. I know all about independent dealers, but my cars were company cars and that’s why I used Beemer in Portsmouth for my cars. Walk in, pick a colour and spec, take delivery, put fuel in it, get it serviced, px it in for another… and so on. Tools for the job, simple. I’m sure there were other things Beemer changed during servicing, but I’m not bothered what they change. Without the car I’d be stuffed, so it’s a no brainer for me.

However those days of massive mileage’s are gone and I take more interest in what I drive and why. The last 5 (240k on it) was px’d for an XC90 and I wish I’d never done that, those are massive and for me pointless.. I could get everything I wanted in the 5, but the 90 was a compromise in so many ways, that’s why I only had it for a couple of years before I got rid for a XC60.. which was nice, smaller and yet still bulky neither had anywhere near the stratospheric mileage’s and I’m not sure they would have faired that well if they had TBH..

If I was looking at big mileage’s again I’d not hesitate to go for another 5, or an e class 320 something or other.

Two 320Ds here, one 175k and one 200k miles, both original and have had not much apart from consumables. I keep thinking I ought to start looking around but they both keep on going and the cheapest car is the one you’ve got. I will be glad to ditch diesel when these go even though they are not big offenders.

Just for balance I had a 2005 535d. Nearly bankrupted me with constant 4 figure repair bills after 100k!

Lots of computers kept going wrong and then they would be £600 plus need programming in.

Following as I’m looking at similar cars.

BillMC – Member
Two 320Ds here, one 175k and one 200k miles, both original and have had not much apart from consumables. I keep thinking I ought to start looking around but they both keep on going and the cheapest car is the one you’ve got. I will be glad to ditch diesel when these go even though they are not big offenders.

What model year are they?

One repeated thing I’ve seen is that the newer ones are not as reliable. I asked at my local independent garage and he said the new ones were ‘built to last the lease’ which I imagine is boswollocks but nonetheless didn’t exactly fill me with confidence… 😆

Needs to be no longer than a 3 series touring though as it won’t go in the garage.

Who puts a car in a garage these days? Aren’t they just a receptacle for all your junk?

Retro, both 2005 E46. Both the mechanic who maintains them and the bloke at the MOT centre say the newer ones are less reliable due to more gadgets to go wrong but I suspect that must be the case with most newer cars. When I have tried to calculate what petrol car will meet my needs (reliability, bikes in the back, 260 mile commute, reasonable mpg) as a replacement I find myself looking at Mazdas.

Who puts a car in a garage these days? Aren’t they just a receptacle for all your junk?

You know there are people who don’t live in Surrey don’t you?

As mentioned above, they have a timing chain and not belt so handle the high mileage really well with minimal extra maintenance.

Manuals will need a clutch and flywheel somewhere around 100K, budget £750 to 900 for this.

The 5 series have a few more bells and whistles – air suspension, alec handbrake etc and these can be expensive to fix if it needs it. 3 series don’t have these.

Talking about huge mileage’s, it seems like the U.K. is the only country “bothered” by them. In Aus or the US it’s perfectly acceptable to look at cars under two years old with 100k+ on them, Germany too for that matter.
Always look for FSH and any Warranty requirements have been completed then just drive the things.

I did see an e class with the air suspension stuff on it before I bought my current car, looked ace TBH.. the boot was larger than a VW UP! or so it seemed.. but I made the fatal error of asking my mate (who owns a Merc Indy garage, who I used to take my small MPV Mercs too) and he said “when they go pop, and they do, they cost about £7k to fix because you need to replace all four corners” I thought that an odd explaination but he does know what he’s doing.
But if I was going down the Company Car route again I’d still buy one, it’s all covered by the lease and warranty so again.. who cares.

It’s probably worth bearing in mind that suspension maintenance will start to be required at ~80k miles. Bushings, tie rods, wishbones, dampners and coils are pretty pricey. It was over £1000 for my (105k) mile car recently.

110k on my 2005 530d.

It is going through its ‘expensive phase’, had to replace the turbo at 104k, front springs recently, general wear and tear items to get through the MOT and I am pretty sure there is a hole somewhere in the exhaust. One of the parking sensors is dead which is preventing the whole system from working and someone decided to borrow one of the front headlight washer cover plates the other day so I have a nice hole in the front bumper now as my car doesn’t have the headlight washer option specced.

Also, my headlights are crap compared to others on the road.

Earlier 3 litre diesels had issues with the swirl flaps where after a period of time they would break and get sucked into the inlet manifold / cylinders causing lots of top end damage.

Lots of garages seem to forget to replace the crankcase breather every 3rd service which can cause issues further on down the line and main dealer prices are fairly obscene. Main dealer wanted £680 to replace the front springs, local garage was £308

2006 530D Touring with 120k on the clock here.

Issues in my ownership;

1) Wiring to the two boot lids a bit dodgy (they all do that sir) – got a repair kit and sorted most of it.
2)The satnav/stereo failed. Early lead free solder doesn’t last apparently – sent it off to someone who ran it through a solder bath and all’s been good since.
3) had the swirl flaps removed as a precaution.
4) New disks and pads
5) couple of new bushes at the front

Other than that servicing (I go for an annual oil change regardless of what the computer says) and consumables.

I reckon it costs me £800-£1000/year to run it (doing 8k miles) on top of insurance/road fund/fuel. But I only paid £6500 for it so depreciation is probably fairly minimal.

Servicing is all via a non-franchise BMW specialist.

funnily – when I first got it the pump for the rear air suspensionw as noisy and often reported faults – it must have been sat for a while because after a check at the garage where they ran it through a complete cycle test a few times it settled down – stuff like that is an expensive fix but most consumables seem on a par with the Renault I had before.

While it’s not a Beemer a near neighbour is running an 08 plate Vauxhall Vectra diesel with 450k+ miles on it

He does 50k miles a year? I had a vectra, at around 100,000 it started to feel very old, just got rid of a 55 plate honda accord with 171k on it, it felt shagged.

I wouldn’t pay £9500 for a car that’s done 100k miles, doubt you will either.

It’s probably worth bearing in mind that suspension maintenance will start to be required at ~80k miles. Bushings, tie rods, wishbones, dampners and coils are pretty pricey. It was over £1000 for my (105k) mile car recently.

Agreed, the suspension on my honda was dire and needed lots of work to get it through the MOT. Headlights were also awful despite decent bulbs.

E91 320d on 160k here.

Cost a fair chunk around the 120k mark for new brakes, springs and dampers, but then until this year has been very frugal.

This last 12 months a bunch of minor but irritating stuff has failed – brake caliper seals, rear wheel bearings, cabin fan squeaking, boot lid wiring, a £2 metal cup on the rear dampers collapsed. A couple of brake lines are looking a bit cruddy too. The rear arches are *just* starting to look a wee bit scabby too.

None of it’s been desperately expensive (bar the wheelbearings which wasn’t DIY) but it’s all added up to time under the car rather than riding.

Won’t be changing its for a good few years yet.

Be aware that the M47T2 2.0d engine is generally pretty bombproof, but the engine in the facelifted version (N47?) is known to chomp timing chains and it’s an engine out job to do preventative replacement.

BMW did create a TSB for N47 timing chain issues in mid-2016 – affected engines would either have a new tensioner fitted or new tensioner+chain. You didn’t need to have full dealer history either in order to get the work carried out.

It’s probably worth bearing in mind that suspension maintenance will start to be required at ~80k miles. Bushings, tie rods, wishbones, dampners and coils are pretty pricey.

Pretty much the case with our 66k mile Kuga, although thats a 10yo car used 80% for “town”.

I’m starting to feel £9.5k to keep my 120d for a few years then sell that at 70/80k miles and let someone else start the repair bill is the sensible option.

I have a 2009 525d that’s just hit 100k this week, BEST car I’ve ever owned!

That said, seeing over 100k every time I start it worries me so I’m thinking of swapping for a newer’un soon 😉

https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/13628770/

I probably misunderstood your original post.

Choice is buy your current low mileage car after pcp deal ends for £9,5k, or hand that back and spend £9.5k on a high mileage 3 series touring.

Is that right? What would be the benefit of going for the 3 series?

Suspension and clutch are very much usage dependent – I’m on the original of both at almost 200k (unless they were changed before 60k) with a remap for over half of that (hush now!). I’m expecting to change the former soon though as I’ve done a lot more non-motorway miles over the last year and it’s starting to feel a bit wooden.

Is that right? What would be the benefit of going for the 3 series

Slightly bigger, slightly less fidgety on the road due to its weight, I’d get an auto box, might have Nav in it… I think thats about it.

Part of the consideration is that I’ve happily done everything I need to do for 2.5 years in the 120d, its £30 VED, I won’t have to find a lease/PCP deposit, and the loan would be £171 a month (5 years) of which I can make overpayments to reduce the cost. I t needs new tyres soon so I’d look for a more “all season” variety than the current ones and thats it.

Bear in mind we will always have another SUV type family car.

Personally I don’t see the point in changing, unless you just want a change. If you buy a car with 100k on the clock and you’re paying for it over 5 years will you sleep soundly at night?

legend – Member

You aren’t going to buy a high mileage second-hand car, you just aren’t.
Posted 3 hours ago #

Kryton57 – Member
I’m starting to feel £9.5k to keep my 120d for a few years then sell that at 70/80k miles and let someone else start the repair bill is the sensible option.

You could’ve saved 2 hours if you’d just listened to me in the first place.

9.5k on a car with 100k on the clock is mental money.

thats all i have to add.

9.5k on a car with 100k on the clock is mental money.

Is it? Thats the question – there seems to be plenty on sale around that mark so presumably theres a market, and a reason for that market.

I don’t know either, hence I asked the question.

I’ve got a F31 320d M-Sport Tourer on a 15 plate, new in June 2015, it’s just clicked 65k on the clock and it’s been absolutely faultless and I can’t see why anything will change over the next year until it goes back.

To be honest it’s getting better, by that I mean smoother and more economic. It has been fully maintained at a main dealer though. The seat (leather) look hardly sat in and the interior hasn’t worn at all.

I don’t see something with another 30k on it being any different.

I also had a ’51 plate E46 320d M-Sport 4 door saloon that I bought when I was changing jobs in 2011, that had around 90k on the the clock and it too was faultless.